John and Craig welcome back Katie Dippold (Widow’s Bay, Ghostbusters) to ask, what advice would you give to your younger self? They revisit the writers they used to be, offer specific guidance to each one, and demystify everything from “Why isn’t a producer calling me back?” to “Should I join that sorority?”
Most importantly, we look at how Katie turned her former writing sample into the hilarious and spooky new show, Widow’s Bay. We also answer listener questions on calling out stolen ideas and how to pitch yourself when your past work doesn’t line up with your voice.
In our bonus segment for premium members, with the rise of AI, will there still be be movies and TV shows in ten or twenty years? Our best guesses lie just behind the paywall.
Links:
- Widow’s Bay on AppleTV
- Katie Dippold on Instagram and IMDb
- Scriptnotes listener survey
- Katie as the Babadook
- The last time Katie was on Scriptnotes, Episode 272
- The Sheep Detectives
- Wolf’s Belly Publisher’s Weekly starred review (preorder the book here!)
- Oscar Rule Changes by Clayton Davis for Variety
- Weekend Read 2
- Watch Haley Z. Boston read her script for Something Very Bad is Going to Happen
- Captain Disillusion
- Homemade Heating Pad
- This Treatment Could Reverse Osteoarthritis Joint Damage With a Single Injection by Javier Carbajal for Wired
- Get your copy of the Scriptnotes book!
- Get a Scriptnotes T-shirt!
- Check out the Inneresting Newsletter
- Become a Scriptnotes Premium member, or gift a subscription
- Subscribe to Scriptnotes on YouTube
- Follow Scriptnotes on Instagram and TikTok
- John August on Bluesky and Instagram
- Outro by Eric Pearson (send us yours!)
- Scriptnotes is produced by Drew Marquardt and edited by Matthew Chilelli.
Email us at ask@johnaugust.com
You can download the episode here.